Could I Have Some Of What You Are Smoking Please?

Pass the whacky tabacca, ganja and mary jane my way please oh but hold on the snacks as I’m headed to the beach in a few weeks.

Do you ever get one of those laugh out loud, cause you to snort moments when you open an offer on a listing? It happened to me recently and even better it sent my clients into fits of laughter as well. The reason? An offer $100,000 below list price. Now the owners could have been insulted but I warned them up front when I called them that I had news that would make their day. Not in the way they were expected but it would indeed make their day.

Setting the stage can make the difference between a %$#& reaction and a good chuckle. In this case the response was obvious. Northern Virginia and the entire DC Metro area is one of the parts of the country where the real estate market is up in price. In fact in many cases homes are receiving multiple offers. So when one arrives that is so far off the market all you can do is smile, laugh and move on.

4 thoughts on “Could I Have Some Of What You Are Smoking Please?”

I, as a buyer, should be the one insulted by somebody currently asking for $1.3 million for a property assessed at $575,000…

Insulted by sellers whose homes are filthy, dilapidated, moldy…advertised as being in “move in condition”…. yet they want full asking price…

Insulted by real estate agents that are less than honest, manipulative(and that is putting it mildly)….whose only care is the commission….

Insulted by banks that keep you waiting for more than six months and keep on making more and more depends…

Insulted by agents that every other day reduce the listing price by $1 (yes, one dollar)….

Insulted when one reads that a prominent local real estate agent was renting out properties which he was suppose to be selling, and — when found out — only gets a slap in the hand…

Insulted when semi-literate buyers that could barely speak English and hardly made minimum wage were being sold $750,00 homes that were worth a third of that….

Et. al…. Get the picture, Cindy? And you know these are not made up cases as you yourself have brought up some of these issues in this blog while a few others (the most grievous ones) have made it to the Washington Post and other local papers.

Furthermore, I don’t see why real estate agents keep on bringing up the term “insulted” when things don’t go their way. If a buyer does not like an offer, just say “no,” like in any other business transaction. But don’t act like a wilting flower.

Joseph-I certainly understand that there are homes and times when what is advertised and what is offered are two different things. As in any industry their are agents who walk a fine line and cross the line. In real estate it is often up to another agent to report the offense and then wait, sometimes longer than a short sale, to see any action taken.

Lets face it an offer that knocks over 50% off the price of a house in the DC market isn’t realistic IF the comps & condition of the property support the price. Certainly if a home is over-priced by 50% that’s a very different story.

No pity party here. Just the sound of me telling my clients to say NEXT and move on.

It all depends on the market and the list price of the property in my opinion. If it is a slow market and the list price of the property is $2,000,000 then offering $100,000 below list price is not laughable.

However if it is a $500,000 property in a booming market then yes, the person is just a time waster.